We have great pleasure in inviting you to submit a paper for the Ninth Biennial ProLISSA Conference, to be held on 13-17 March 2017 (Pretoria):

Doctoral Forum (13-14 March 2017)

Main Conference (15-17 March 2017)

About the DISSAnet conferences

The DISSAnet series of conferences are intended as a biennial event to showcase South African and African research in the broad field of Library and Information Science (LIS). The first seven conferences took place in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015. All eight conferences were very successful, and were attended by a number of academics and information professionals from across South Africa, the SADC countries and further afield. Conference papers that were presented prior to 2011 can be found on the DISSAnet website at http://www.dissanet.com and papers from PROLISSA 2011 are published in Mousaion 29 (2) 2011 which is an accredited journal in Information Science.

Conference Theme (15-17 March 2017)

The theme for this conference is ‘libraries and archives for development in the digital age’. Development remains a major challenge in South Africa and the African continent at large. As the country is implementing strategies to overcome its developmental challenges and also remain competitive in the new global knowledge-based economy, libraries and archives can play an important role in this process through provision of information. Information in modern society is valued as an essential component in the daily lives of people, both on individual and organisational levels. Increasingly we expect information to meet our needs through technological interventions or interactions. Indeed, recent technological developments have accentuated contemporary conceptions of the Library and Information field as an intersection of information, technology, people and society.

Contributions are invited that address current research issues related to the LIS field. Themes that may be addressed are wide and open, but an advanced academic level of discourse is required. Inter alia the following broad themes will be addressed at the conference:

Digital curation

Digital preservation

Copyright in the digital age

Legislation

Research

Virtual libraries

User and information services

Information organisation and retrieval

Information behaviour

Social media and LIS

Bibliometrics

Digital records forensics

Information and knowledge management

Archival diplomatics

Information governance and assurance

Open access

LIS current trends

Information ethics in a digital environment

LIS education and practices in the digital age

Doctoral Forum (13-14 March 2017)

The Doctoral Forum forms part of the DISSAnet series of conferences which endeavour to showcase South African and African doctoral research in the broad field of Information Science. Abstracts are invited from doctoral students to present their research activities or outputs to a panel of experts.

Programme Committee

Prof Mpho Ngoepe

Prof Bosire Onyancha

Dr Madelein Fombad

Committee members

Ismail Abdullahi, North Carolina Central University, USA

John Agada, Emporia State University, USA

Albert Boekhorst, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Theo Bothma, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Genevieve Hart, University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Kalervo Jarvelin, University of Tampere, Finland

Mabel Majanja, University of South Africa, South Africa

Karin McGuirk, University of South Africa, South Africa

Kingo Mchombu, University of Namibia, Namibia

Mary Nassimbeni, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Patrick Ngulube, University of South Africa, South Africa

Dennis Ocholla, University of Zululand, South Africa

Bosire Onyancha, University of South Africa, South Africa

Christine Stilwell, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Adeline du Toit, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Thomas van der Walt, University of South Africa, South Africa

Elisam Magara, University of Makerere, Uganda

Stephen Mutula, University of Botswana, Botswana

Joseph Kiplang’at, Moi University, Kenya

Mutawakilu A. Tiamiyu, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Lawton Hikwa, National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe

Vitalis Chifwepa, University of Zambia, Zambia

Gavin Davis, University of Western Cape, South Africa

Constant Okello-Obura, Makerere University, Uganda

Deadlines for submission of papers

28 October 2016 – Abstract (250-500 words).

30 November 2016 – Notification of acceptance / rejection of the submitted abstract.

17 February 2017 – Full completed paper.

Contact information

Abstracts for the conference should be forwarded to Prof Bosire Onyancha at onyanob@unisa.ac.za

Abstracts for the doctoral forum should be forwarded to Dr Madelein Fombad at fombamc@unisa.ac.za